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Thursday, October 22, 2009

Recipe for My Grandmother's Marinara Sauce

To my faithful readers who have been patient with me, I'll finally explain why I took a long break from blogging. My grandfather recently died and my life has been in a bit of a frenzy with work, love, family, and a funeral. In memory of my grandfather, who loved this tomato sauce recipe so much, I am going to share with you my version of my grandmother's spaghetti sauce.
My grandmother usually used a mixture of stewed tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato puree from a can to make this. However, I have multitudes of fresh tomatoes from my garden to use for this. I have adapted the recipe to call for fresh tomatoes, which was probably the origin of the recipe anyway.

You can use a food mill (pictured right) or tomatoes concasse as explained in my gazpacho recipe to make this. For ideal texture, use both. I chose to essentially juice my tomatoes this time, since most of my harvest was made up of small tomatoes which don't produce much flesh after skinning and de-seeding. The method of getting the tomatoes into the pot is less important than simply reducing the sauce for a long time. It should be very rich, dark, and thick when it's ready.

Simmer for several hours, stirring every half hour until the sauce thickens and becomes dark and rich. Taste it and adjust seasonings as desired. You can add water at any time if it's too thick. If desired, add some browned meat balls and/or sausage 1/2 hour before you are done cooking. Serve over your favorite gluten-free pasta.

I have been cooking marinara sauce without tomato paste for years. But the last time I made it, I also used garden tomatoes, and it was really, really watery. I happened to have some tomato paste lying around and I added it. The sauce thickened instantly! So if you are short on time it's worth trying. The sauce tasted good in the end--not tomato-pasty as you might imagine.

I made grandma's recipe with fresh tomatoes from the garden and also with tomatoes and tomatoe paste I had canned. The one thing I do (Did-haven't made this in years since I don't eat much pasta these days) is cook the sausage in the pot first and add the ingrediants to the sausage in the order you mentioned. Actually I don't put onion in the sauce but it sounds good!mom

That's a good idea, Mom, thanks! For some reason I thought you usually did put onions in it. I think the one time Grandma showed me how to make it she used onions, but now I'm not sure. They certainly don't hurt, though!